Sanchez gives herself over with deep pleasure to the exacting beauty of haiku, a form she has cherished her entire writing life. Winner of the Robert Frost Medal and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award, among many other honors, Sanchez has for decades been a soaring voice in protest against racism, sexism, and other forms of injustice, and in praise of black heritage and culture. Her newest haikus are diamond distillations of complex feelings, painful history, the torrent of language, and oceanic sensuality.

Journalist Robin Stone will be the keynote speaker on Saturday Sept. 18, 2010, 6-11pm, at Helen Butler Hall in Amityville. The event is a gala dinner for Mustard Seed Survivor Empowerment Foundation, a non-profit organization that counsels survivors of sexual